MUTANT VAMPIRE: Iraqi 'Honor Killing' Mother Gunned Down

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Iraqi 'Honor Killing' Mother Gunned Down

– The ex-wife of an Iraqi man who beat, choked, and stabbed their 17-year-old daughter to death over an innocent crush on a British soldier has been gunned down, the Guardian reports. Leila Hussein had been staying in a series of safe houses while arrangements were being made to flee the country. She was shot to death by three men in a car as aid workers walked her to a taxi that would have taken her to Jordan.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Once her daughter was murdered and she courageously decided to leave her abusive, violent husband, Leila’s life was at very high risk. But still. . .

Here are some ideas about what can be done about these crimes:

1. Most of the countries where dishonor killings are indigenous have signed any number of international human rights agreements and covenants with us. For example, Jordan is in violation of 17 of them, and that is just on dishonor killings alone. We need to put pressure on our governments to ensure that these agreements with us are upheld. The U.N. is a huge disappointment in this respect.

2. We can write to our representatives and leaders and demand that they withhold some meaningful portion (25% or more?) of our aid to these countries unless and until they materially, measurably, sustainably improve their human rights track records. And we cannot rely on self reporting. . .we need to have the right to go in and do our own investigations of the situations on the ground.

3. Maybe it's time we start economically boycotting countries that continue to treat their women like this and the companies that do business with them. We could do for women what the boycott of South Africa did for blacks when they were living under apartheid.

4. Funding is a huge issue. There seems to be an overabundance of funds for people and organizations that haven’t gotten much in the way of results (typically, they are using the funds for international travel, conferences, seminars, overhead, and other line items that aren’t doing anything to help at-risk women like Leila), and almost zilch for those that are really striving to make a difference by offering support services, better information about the nature and scope of these crimes (good data is difficult to come by and, thus, decision making quality is less than optimal), shelters, safehouses, and even assistance with asylum. So this is a touchy issue. . .one that requires a lot of due diligence, not just do gooding.

Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"
http://www.redroom.com/author/ellen-r-sheeley; June 2, 2008 at 3:18 PM